I don’t think most people realize how many versions a book cover goes through before it becomes the final product they see on the shelf. Designing a book cover is a very collaborative process, and though it can also be a very challenging and loooong process at times—it’s always fascinating to see the evolution. Often, a designer’s best or favorite concepts are not the ones that make the final cut, so it’s fun to share what was left behind.

Here’s a recent cover I did for Egmont. Another opportunity to mix my own illustration and lettering into the design, I dove right in and really enjoyed hammering out these first comps.

Ultimately, the publisher preferred a more commercial photographic approach, but I was still able to incorporate a whimsical illustration into the final cover:

This is Mary Amato’s second YA novel, and is available for pre-order on Amazon.

Very excited that I can finally share a project I worked on last year—a book cover for Lindsay Eland’s new middle-grade novel for Egmont Books. I love projects like this, where I had the opportunity to create the whole package: design, illustration, and hand-lettering.

This is the story of Sunday Fowler, who’s feels she’s always overlooked in her family as the third of six kids. So she’s determined to spend the summer finding a way to make herself stand out, and may have just found it in the mysterious letters she finds in a silver box in the basement of the library her parents are renovating. She’s determined to find out who wrote them, in hopes to unveil to the world what may be a lost novel—and become famous!

I tried several different approaches in the sketch rounds, but ultimately we decided to focus on conveying the sense of mystery as well as Sunday’s determination.

I previously worked on Lindsay’s debut middle grade novel, Scones and Sensibility. It’s such a joy to work on her books—her writing is delightfully sweet & fun. A Summer of Sundays pubs in July and is now available for pre-order on Amazon.